You could say Patrick Dodd took a long and winding road to The Voice stage.

The 35-year-old Memphis resident started performing with a band at age 18.

In fact, he released a debut album called “Pleasure” in 1997, according to a story in the Memphis Flyer.

But he also got married and started a family at a young age. He and his wife have three daughters and, as Patrick told The Voice, “music wasn’t going to pay the bills.”

So he went into landscaping and literally put music to the side.

“My guitar ended up sitting in its case under my bed for years,” he told the Flyer.

Until 2008, when he formed the Patrick Dodd trio with bass guitarist Landon Moor and drummer Harry Peel and started playing gigs on Beale Street in Memphis.

In fact, Dodd estimates the trio played 600 shows in 2010 and 2011 alone.

It paid off. In 2011, he was named Beale Street Entertainer of the Year. And, by the end of the year, the trio released a seven-song EP called Future Blues, available at BandCamp.com.

The music is different than the alternative rock he played as a youth, far more blues and southern rock influenced.

In his post-audition interview, Patrick said he’d thought about trying out for such a competition in the past and ultimately decided to give it a try to see if “I’m bigger than what I’m doing in Memphis.”

He picked a fitting audition song — “Walking in Memphis” — and found himself with two coaches to choose from, Shakira and Adam Levine.

He chose Adam.

“Adam just made more sense for me,” he said after the audition. “I feel like he really touched on the idea of letting me express myself as an artist later in the competition. I came here to learn and get opinions from people on this level.”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name (required):

Email (required):

Website

Your comment (required):

Featured Video

Best of the Night on Idol

Jackie "Jax" Cole, an 18-year-old pop singer from New Jersey turned in the best performance during the girls Top 12 night on American Idol, covering Cher's "Bang, Bang." For song by song grades from the show, head here.